Grade Inflation
by The Milk of Human Kindness
Summary: When Padma begins surpassing her scores, Hermione struggles to cope with the idea that she might not be the brightest witch in her age anymore.
1. First No More

Disclaimer: JK Rowling's, not mine.

Summary: When Padma begins surpassing her scores, Hermione struggles to cope with the idea that she might not be the brightest witch in her age anymore.

A/N: No one reads a minor character like Padma anyway, which is a shame, because so much can be done! So I encourage you, noble reader, not just to read and review this story, but to read and review many other unusual pairings! Go! Go! For the good of mankind!

* * *

The sound of chair legs scraping on the floor resonated across the room as the entire class straightened themselves up against their seats. It had only been a week since the school year started, but they had already learned that Professor Slughorn was a strict and demanding Potions master.

Slughorn's voice, always sounding like he had a mouthful of food in his mouth, boomed across the classroom. He was handing back their first test today.

"I've been teaching this subject since before your parents were born. And I have never, ever, seen such poor results. I shall have to speak with Albus about the performance of my predecessor." He stared around the class, as students looked down to avoid his gaze.

Aware that he was already getting a reputation as a mean instructor, he smiled warmly and cheered up his tone.

"On the other hand, there was one student who scored fantastically well. Truly one of the best performances I've seen at this level."

Harry elbowed Hermione. "Gonna make us look bad, you brainy brat."

Slughorn continued. "And traditionally I've always offered a prize to the best scorer on the first test of the year. Back in the old days I would give out dragon eggs as prizes, but as the Ministry frowns on that nowadays, I'll have to give something more subtle, but equally worthy."

Harry elbowed Hermione again, and raised his eyebrows in exaggerated excitement. "Did I tell you how much I value your friendship, Hermione?" he whispered.

Hermione just grinned and looked away.

Slughorn held up a vial of amber liquid. "This looks like any other potion we could conjure up in a few seconds, but I assure you it isn't." He paused for dramatic effect. "No, this potion requires a great more skill and far more time to brew. Years."

He paused for dramatic effect, scanning the classroom for the looks of awe and respect he expected.

"For you see students, this potion is called….Felix Felicis. Does anyone know what that means in Latin? No? Well, itgrants the person who drinks it an entire day of the most excellent luck that a wizard, or anyone, can possibly have."

Hermione's, and everyone else's, eyes got big. She could really use that potion.

"So it is with great pleasure I bestow such a treasure on my most excellent student..."

Hermione tensed herself. She could almost hear her name being called, feel the vial in her hands.

"Padma Patil."

A hushed gasp went through the entire room. Hermione had never failed to earn top marks on any test, in any subject, in any year, ever. All eyes turned on her for a moment and saw her staring straight ahead, with her mouth slightly open, obviously in shock. Then the heads swiveled around to the back of the class, eyes seeking to rest their gazes on the girl who had just surpassed the mighty Hermione Granger.

Padma, seated in between her twin and Cho Chang, was hunched slightly over her desk, in apparent embarassment. After a pause, she meekly got up and walked to the front of the class to accept a hearty handsake and priceless potion from the professor. She did not appear to be surprised by her score.

Slughorn, apparently unaware of the momentous event that had just occurred in his own class, quickly began handing back the tests, while scolding the eggregiously bad test takers.

"Truly a ghastly effort, Brown."

"Honestly Weasely, are you even aware what a Shaaran elixir does?"

"Your father won't be pleased to hear about this, Malfoy."

He stopped in front of Hermione.

"I must say, Miss Granger, Albus had nothing but the highest praise for your keen mind and academic abilities, so I can't help but say I'm extremely disappointed."

The test plopped on Hermione's desk. She had gotten a 46. Out of 80.

"I must remind you all that I am not Professor Snape. Perhaps when he was conducting this class, you could get by with such incompetence and piddling effort. But I have and will continue to teach by the standards established by the four founders of Hogwarts. Therefore, I expect you all to try harder and perform better or I fear it will be a poor OWL season this year."

Hermione stared at her score. She was far too shocked to open her test, and she did not hear Slughorn dismissing the class. She merely sat in her chair, staring at the big numbers which indicated her failure. Failure, a feeling that was new to her. Finally Harry put his hand on her shoulder.

"Come on 'Mione," he said gently, knowing what his friend was going through. "We've got to get to Flitwick's class."

Ron appeared by her side as well.

"Hermione, don't feel bad about that score. That bleedin' test was impossible! You still got the second highest score in the class," he added, while holding up his test with the number 19 written across it. "You still did loads better than me and Harry."

Harry nodded and showed Hermione the 27 he had scored. "Don't sweat it, Hermione. Everyone, even you, has a bad test at least once in their lives."

Hermione set herself in motion. "Yes…a bad test." She tried play it down, and stick it in the back of her mind. But the foreign feeling of failure came rushing back. Someone had beaten her! Except for flying, she was always the best at anything she tried. Being less was unacceptable.

"What---what did Padma get?"

Harry shrugged, but appeared uncomfortable doing so.

"Tell me Harry, what did she get?"

"Hermione, I don't thi---"

"Just tell me, dammit!"

"Okay. Okay. She got a 77."

Hermione sat down again. Padma had scored over 30 points better than she had! Sure, she was always a very good student, but 30 points better? It had to be an isolated incident. Hermione constantly strugged with self-confidence, and to reduce panic attacks she had taken to constantly complimenting herself.

_You're smarter than Padma. You're smarter than Padma. You're smarter than Padma. _

Hermione steeled herself, got up and headed to the door. This test was a one time thing only. Hermione vowed that she'd show everyone, including herself, that she was still the smartest student in the class. That she was smarter than Padma.

* * *

As soon as they were out of the classroom, Parvati grabbed her twin and pushed her into a quiet corner of the hallway. She was beaming. 

"I _can't_ believe you actually pulled it off, Pad."

Padma just looked back with a smile. "I think you owe me an apology."

Parvati grinned. "Okay, I'm sorry for doubting you."

"And?"

"I'll never doubt your academic potential again."

"That's better," Padma beamed.

It had all been worth it! Since she could remember, the Patil twins were obliged to spend every summer in India, visiting and attending to numerous relatives. Cute guys abounded in India, so Parvati never seemed to mind. But bookwormish Padma chafed under these family obligations. She had desperately wanted to spend the summer learning and studying, like she knew Hermione was doing. She was constantly bothered by the idea that she wasn't reaching her full potential, and finally, the summer before her sixth year, her parents relented and allowed her to stay at home and study.

"Merlin, Pad…you—you could really be the smartest student in our class now! I mean…" Parvati suddenly realized something else. "And that potion! Goodness, Felix…whatever it was! What a prize!"

Padma just smiled.

Parvati didn't stop talking, but lowered her voice to barely above a whisper.

"And did you see Hermione? Did you see how she looked?" Parvati chuckled.

Padma nodded. She had been watching. Beating Hermione was the one thing that had driven her through all those hot summer days of study. It had all been worth it.


	2. Twisting the Dagger

Disclaimer: Not mine, not yours, but JK Rowling's.

Summary: Hermione freaks out.

A/N: I got three reviews! does happy dance That is like, oh I dunno, _three_ more reviews than I expected. So to you three reviewers, I love you! That being said, as this story still has less than 60 hits, I doubt I'll get too many more. On a sad note about how overlooked rare pairings are, my Pansy-Hermione story was released almost at the same time as this, and it already has like 1560 hits. So doubly thank you to my reviewers. You literally may have been the only people to read this story. Anyway, I know this chapter is short, but I'll write more--I promise. Please read and review, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

"Hey 'Mione, we're going to run some new formations for Quidditch this afternoon," Harry was saying. Their last class of the day, Herbology, had just ended. "You wanna come watch?" 

Hermione's mind was obviously elsewhere. She continued walking, oblivious to the question.

"Hermione?"

"Hey, Hermione?" Ron had joined in.

"HERMIONE!"

That got her attention. "Oh, I'm sorry. What were you asking?"

"Do you want to come to our Quidditch practice today?" Harry smiled. He could guess the answer.

"Uhh, well," Hermione's mind raced, "I think uhh, umm I promised Ginny that I would help her with some Charms homework, so, you know, I need to do that."

Ron grinned. He and Harry were going to stretch this out as long as possible.

"What are you talking about? Ginny's going to be on the Quidditch pitch with us!"

"Oh, right. Did I say Ginny? I meant…um, I meant," Hermione closed her eyes briefly to think. "Neville! Yeah, Neville."

"Oh? I thought Neville wasn't taking Charms this year," Harry replied.

"Yeah, he told me he was taking Occlumency instead," Ron piped in.

Hermione stared at them, furiously trying to think of way to dig out the hole she had dug herself.

"I don't feel well," she finally announced. "I think I'm going to lay down for a bit." She started down the hallway.

"Hermione?"

Hermione stopped and turned around.

"Our dorm is _that _way," Harry pointed in the opposite direction. "The way you're going leads to the Dining Hall," he paused, "…and the library."

"Oh," she replied, trying to seem unfazed. "I must have gotten confused." She turned around and quickly strode down the hall. At the end of the hallway, she turned left, though the dorm was to her right.

"Did she just go left?" Ron stood next to Harry.

"Yeah, she's going to cut through the courtyard and go in the library through the south entrance, I bet." Harry was smiling.

"You realize she's going to be completely insane until she beats Padma, right?"

"As if she wasn't already?" Harry chuckled.

Ron laughed.

"This is going to be a very interesting year."

* * *

As soon as Hermione entered the library, she made a beeline for the Potions section. Her head was still flush with the indignity of finishing second (second!) to someone. It just wasn't acceptable. And it wasn't ever going to happen again.

The library felt so much stranger during the day, largely because the sunshine through the rose windows gave it an eerie glow. Hermione had stopped coming to the library during the day after her first year, when she had slightly relaxed her study habits. 'Well,' Hermione thought to herself, 'looks like I'm back to the first year routine.'

She placed her book bag on the table and took out her Potions test. She was going to figure out what she had done wrong for the questions she missed. She glanced at the first question. It was about invisibility potions. She went off amongst the bookshelves to find the appropriate book.

When she finally found a copy of _Invisibility Spells for the Common Mage_, she headed back to her desk. As she returned, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was now someone sitting at the table across from her, and from where she was standing, it could only be one of two people.

'Please be Parvati, please be Parvati,' Hermione thought to herself as she approached, cursing herself when she finally saw the Ravenclaw tie on her new library neighbor. _Padma._ She'd rather it be _anyone _else.

Hearing Hermione's footsteps, Padma looked up and saw who it was. "Hermione!" she greeted her enthusiastically, faking her surprise. "I didn't know you studied in the library during the day!"

Hermione forced a smile in reply. "Err, well umm, I'm supposed to be meeting someone here, but they never showed up…" she trailed off unconvincingly before saving herself and stating confidently, almost shouting, "I was supposed to be tutoring Neville in Charms, but he just never showed up!" She shrugged her shoulders in an exaggerated gesture.

Padma scrunched her face up. "Neville's taking Charms? But I thought…oh nevermind." In her mind, she could barely avoid breaking out in laughter. Hermione was such a bad liar.

Faced with an uncomfortable pause and cursing herself for using the same bad lie twice, Hermione sought to fill the silence.

"Congrats on your test, by the way." Her voice cracked slightly. "You deserved it."

She held out her hand for a handshake, but quickly realized how awkward her gesture was and pulled it back.

Seeing Hermione lose her composure in front of her was endlessly satisfying to the dark-haired Ravenclaw. But not wanting to humiliate Hermione to the point of actual emotional trauma, she spoke up.

"Oh yeah, the test. Well, you know, it happens. Everyone gets lucky every now and then." Padma marveled at how convincing her lie sounded, especially in contrast to the nervous Gryffindor in front of her.

Seeing Hermione's test on her desk, she asked, "Are you going over the questions right now? Would you like to see my answers? It'd save you loads of time."

Hermione's forehead got hot. Her, Hermione Granger, looking at someone else's answers to help pinpoint her mistakes? Oh god, what would her parents say? How far had she fallen?

"No thank you," she squeaked out, "It's better to figure out my mistakes by myself."

Her curious eyes glanced at Padma's table and recognized the book she was reading.

"Is that _Shrinking Potions Explained_?" she had to ask. "I thought we weren't studying shrinking potions until week nine."

Padma marveled at how perfectly this conversation was going. "Yeah, that's right, but I like to study ahead." She let the unsaid implication sink in, as Hermione realized what she meant.

"But…so…so that means you've studied all the way up to Week Nine?" Hermione was almost incredulous. That was impossible! She felt the bile rise up in her throat.

"Yep, I wrote a letter to Slughorn during the summer, asking for the syllabus. And then I just spent the summer studying ahead…for all my classes actually." She smiled simply, as if to indicate that such diligence was perfectly normal, and then further twisted the dagger in Hermione's heart. "Why? Didn't you?"

Hermione's lungs were spasming, and she felt short of breath and dizzy. This was a panic attack.

"I…I…uhh, I mean…I did…over the summer…uhh," she mumbled incoherently, as her brain overloaded with panic. Padma had spent all summer studying ahead! Nine weeks ahead! Oh my god, how could she possibly catch up with her…it was impossible…it was too much.

With her last shred of coherent thought, she announced, again almost shouting, "I'm not feeling well, I'm going to the restroom." Without waiting for a reply, she stumbled off, absent-mindedly smashing her hip into her chair.

Padma watched a dazed Hermione limp off and almost cried tears of happiness. This was just _too_ perfect. Parvati had never suspected it, but Padma had other motives besides grades for studying so hard...


End file.
